SimCity is out

[Greybriar]

For what it's worth, Amazon.com in the U.S. currently shows 2,778 negative out of 3,014 customer reviews.

[Bison]

Well I'll say I haven't had issues getting onto a server today.

[jomni]

Well I'll say I haven't had issues getting onto a server today.

They're generally fixed.

[Steelgrave]

Looks like EA is still being EA though, with the ban-your-account stick ever handy. If you read RPS, you know this is about the zillionith time they've threatened unhappy customers with a ban on their EA account. In this case, a very Clinton-esque response from a "Customer Service" rep to a customer requesting a refund:

http://www.gamechup.com/ea-refuses-to-refund-user-for-simcity-threatens-account-ban/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_47231

[Greybriar]

Looks like EA is still being EA though, with the ban-your-account stick ever handy. If you read RPS, you know this is about the zillionith time they've threatened unhappy customers with a ban on their EA account. In this case, a very Clinton-esque response from a "Customer Service" rep to a customer requesting a refund:

http://www.gamechup.com/ea-refuses-to-refund-user-for-simcity-threatens-account-ban/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_47231

That is one of the reasons I haven't purchased a new EA game for years, for what little good it did with almost everybody else running out and  buying whatever EA dishes out.

[LongBlade]

EA
Amazon suspends sales of SimCity video game
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21712910

Not a good sign.

[Wolfe1759]

This thread made me want to have a go at a city sim (but not SimCity) first thought was Children of the Nile but then spotted Tropico 4 on sale and couldn't resist at a 75% discount and been having as lot of fun with it - it has also got the second best sound track of all the games I own, Revolution Under Siege still takes the number one spot.

[son_of_montfort]

SimCity is an unmitigated disaster. It took my friends and I a day to get a region started together, then the city that I started (and got up to 80K people) errored and not won't let me into it or any other city on that server. So I either wait until they fix it (day two of the problem) or I have my friends abandon their huge cities and go to another region. Our inter-regional trade has not been working anyway (so all the extra MW of power that I spent money on to provide my friend with a clean city goes to waste).

Throw in a few CTDs and that just is icing on the cake.

The bad thing is that the game is relatively fun, when it works.

I guess we are all getting a free EA game (better be my choice and not one foisted on me). But the amount I spent on SimCity was higher than the cost of any game. I won't be getting any more super-duper editions from EA, you can bet on that.

[Bison]

I don't know I've got mixed feelings about the game and I've logged a good number of hours over the last couple of evenings.  I'll set the server issue to the side.  It's a huge annoyance the least of which is why am I forced to be online for a game I've go ZERO interest in playing MMO style.  The gameplay itself is actually quite fun, but the forced nature of the game to develop several small cities to create a supply chain was a bit frustrating at first. Now I've just taken over all of the city sites on my map and basically plan them as a single city.  I still think the city regions are way too small.   Also I'm not sure how the hell they justify only having 8 regions types.  They don't vary, there is no randomization, there is no means to customize a map.  That is complete bullshit.  I see a swarm of DLC in bound to expand map sets, building types, and some more features.

[Longdan]

I haven't played because I won't buy EA.  Both of my kids went for it and both are seasoned gamers who grew up on SimCity.
They pretty much echo what Bison just said.  A really fun game with some shortcomings and annoyances that they felt shouldn't be there
and could eventually be game killers.  Neither felt it was worth the money at this time.  We get this sometimes from Paradox but their
games are fixed by the time the 60 dollar mark is reached.... is what my boy said.

[Steelgrave]

Yeah, EA used to be the game company back in the day. Now? Now I don't think I've purchased one of their titles this decade.

[Bison]

This thread made me want to have a go at a city sim (but not SimCity) first thought was Children of the Nile but then spotted Tropico 4 on sale and couldn't resist at a 75% discount and been having as lot of fun with it - it has also got the second best sound track of all the games I own, Revolution Under Siege still takes the number one spot.

I know a lot of folks have pissed on it, but Cities XL 2011 and later are actually really enjoyable city builders.  You can get them pretty cheap on Steam or Gamersgate.

[jomni]

And now they say some servers will go off line for upgrades.
http://www.ea.com/asia/news/simcity-update-2-from-lucy

None of these problems would have ever cropped up when the game is not server-based.

[Longdan]

I really like the Cities XL games and you are right...they do not cost 60 bux.
The older SimCity is cheap at GoG.

[Bison]

Yeah.  I was playing Sim City 2000 over the last few weeks but the nostaliga just couldn't keep me playing.

The funny thing is everyone complained that Cities was focused on social groups, but SimCity is the exact same way.  Even more so now then in the past.  They've forced you with the economic supply chain model coupled with the zoning methods to plan not a city but social group areas.